You find all sorts of inscriptions in books, usually on the front endpaper, from the plain name and address to pledges of undying love. I came across one today at the front of a copy of ‘Grammont’s memoirs of the Court of Charles the Second’ by Anthony Hamilton.The inscription to the front pastedown reads thus –

“To Claude S. Jackson. Coldstream Guards

From Archer Windsor-Clive 3rd Bn. Coldstream Guards Windsor 1913

Killed in action with the 3rd Bn. at LANDRECIES. August 25th 1914.“

The internet being the marvellous tool that it is, confirms some of these details and throws up more information.Lt. Hon.ArcherWindsor-Clive was born on 6 November 1890. He was the son of Robert George Windsor-Clive, 1st Earl of Plymouth. He attended Eton and played first class cricket for Cambridge University. The excellent Commonwealth War Graves Commission website gives more details of his death – http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=581548Another site gives a quote from ‘Tommy Atkins at War’ by James Alexander Kilpatrick –

A sergeant of the Coldstream Guards, in an account given tothe Evening News, speaks of the death of CaptainWindsor-Clive. "We were sorry to lose Captain Clive, who,"he says, "was a real gentleman and a soldier. He wasknocked over by the bursting of a shell, which maddened ourfellows I can tell you."...........Many British soldierssuffered from the treachery of the Germans in wearingEnglish and French uniforms, and their letters home arefull of indignation at the practises of the enemy. It wasin the fighting following such a ruse at Landrecies thatthe Honorable Archer Windsor-Clive, of the ColdstreamGuards, met his death.

Edinburgh Books

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This little book was amongst a shelf of poetry books which I picked up at an auction earlier this week. The author, William Noel Hodgson, was an Oxford graduate who had volunteered in 1914 and had risen through the ranks to become a Lieutenant. I flicked through it and read a few of the poems […]

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